MENA Revolts: The Role of Youth in Revolutions

MENA Revolts: The Role of Youth in Revolutions

One of the very important features of the MENA revolts is the heroic roles of the youth. From Tunis to Cairo, Algiers, Benghazi, etc., young people dared the regimes of repression. Brilliant initiatives including organization of sit-ins, massive deployment of social media and information technology, etc. showed the important role of new generations in revolutions. More than this, it reflects the fact that these movements represent not just the present, but also the future of these societies. One of the revolutionary implications of youth heroic role in the revolution is that the experience and lessons will serve as legacy for new generations.

Graphically, the roles of the youths have been inspiring which reflect the level of frustration faced by young people. In these MENA countries, 60 percent of the population are young people with more than half of educated youths unemployed while those employed (either self-employed or government/private sector employees), are working like elephant but living like ant. In fact, those between the age bracket of 15 to 30 years constitute up to a third of the North African population. “The International Labor Organization estimates that the unemployment rate for 15- to 24- year olds in the Middle East is 25 percent. A survey of 1,500 youth by the World Bank found that the self-declared or perceived jobless rate was even higher—35 to 40 percent.” In Egypt, unemployment among young people in 2010 was estimated to be around 27.3 percent compared to 4 percent for adults, while 50 percent those aged between 15 and 19 years are unemployed.

All this is coming on the heel of celebrated economic growth for the Middle East and North Africa. For instance, the economic growth of North Africa was put at 3 percent per annum between 2005 and 2011, while “per capita income in the region ranges from $2780 in Egypt to about $10,000 in Libya, compared to an average of $1445 for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).” But the so-called growth has been centred on the top echelon of the population. As a result of the quest for better future, more section of the youths are getting educated, even when spending on education across the region has declined relative to population increase or size of the economy. This has meant that more young people look for better opportunities after education. But, as a result of the neo-liberal economic policies that ensure chronic exploitation of the working people for profits, lesser percentage of the young people are finding opportunity for decent jobs and better living. Consequently, many young people who should be contributing to productive economy have become dependent on their families, whose incomes are also falling as a result of high cost of living occasioned by inflation, dilapidated infrastructures and withdrawal of subsidies. Many of the educated youth are now in informal jobs where incomes are very limited in relation to work. All this defined the character and outlook of young people in not only MENA countries but also in sub-Sahara Africa. It is thus no accident that young people played active and heroic roles in these movements.

Aside the socio-economic crises faced by the youth, is the changing political outlook of the youth. Unlike the older layers who saw emergence of many of the sit-tight rulers in the MENA region, young people are not burdened by the past. They want to create their own future. This is made more explicit by the now cosmopolitan character of many of the MENA countries. Added to this is the deeper global integration, with information and communication technology contributing to this transformation. Worse still, the sit tights, having stayed in power for long, held the people, including the youth in contempt; seeing them as mere subjects. Aside this is the obvious corruption, not only on the streets of Tunis, Cairo or Algiers, but at the top echelon of power. These humiliating situations, coupled with the inability to find any democratic outlet to express their conditions, led the young people to push themselves out in mass movements; daring all consequences.

However, there has been attempt to represent the MENA revolutions as youth or demographic revolutions. Some pundits have posited that the success of the movements lies in the youths' rejection of all 'formal' organizational and leadership structures and ideas, rather their reliance on spontaneous mobilization and online media. While it is true that the youths are playing brave and heroic roles in these movements, attempt to pose the uprisings as youth movements is not only misleading but indeed dangerous has it tends to blur the class character of these historic movements.

The economic crisis that has endangered the future of the young people is as a result of the inherent contradiction of capitalism that ensures enormous wealth for a few and suffering for the majority. This is made worse with the adoption of neo-liberal (ultra-free market) ideology by many third world political classes, especially since the past 25 years. This has meant squeezing of more profits from working people and erosion of social services for the majority. The working people have been seriously attacked in the recent times with daily insecurity of job, low pay and soaring cost of living. This is coupled with unprecedented corruption and lack of democratic opportunity to seek for change, no thanks to the autocratic/repressive state. Therefore, the underlining cause of the revolts is the capitalist economic exploitation, which has been accentuated in this neo-liberal phase. The crises that the young people have faced, and their roles in the revolts and revolutions, only confirms the inability of capitalism, worse still, neo-liberalism, to move these societies forward, or solve the problems faced by young people.

While the unemployed youths and students are active in these movements, in reality, it is the working class youth and indeed the working masses in general that played the decisive roles in these uprisings. This is reflected in the clarion call by the opposition groups for a general strike whenever any of these uprisings is at a critical turning point.

Moreover, the impact of every action of the working class, no matter how minimal has been very significant in these movements. For instance, when the workers in Tunisia decided to join the uprising, every activity and demand of the movement changed with echoes of not only 'Ben Ali must go' but also call for job and better living becoming deafening. In fact, some sections of the workers' movement like the Iron and Steel workers' union, were calling for workers’ takeover of factories and democratic committees throughout the country to provide alternative government. This was however drowned by the central labour leadership and the leadership of the uprising. Also in Egypt, the immediate strike action of the workers in such vital concerns like the Suez Canal and textile industry greatly weakened the regime. At a time, the textile workers were calling for workers takeover of the state apparatus and democratic committees from the grassroots up to the national level. As usual, this was not taken up by the labour movement. Indeed, after the removal of the hated autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, workers have further mobilized for more protests and strikes, underlining the fact that the revolutions have only open a new vista for working class struggles.

The youth, like the students can play active roles in mass movements, but this can only bring fruitful result especially  in overthrowing authoritarian regime and indeed capitalism if it is led by an organized class of the oppressed represented  by the working class. The general term of the youth is confusing since the youth includes the working class youth, middle class youth and even children of the elite. Some of these classes of youth can play and indeed played active roles in revolutionary movements because youth generally are active minds and are motivated by ideals and quest for dignity, but without an organized working class leadership, itself under a democratic, independent and revolutionary leadership, programmes, and ideas, such movements will be diffused without clearly revolutionary programme of uprooting capitalism and enthroning a democratic socialist system. This can generate disillusion, frustration and counter-revolutionary/divisive tendencies at the turn of the movement. This is one of the problems that the mass uprisings in these MENA countries have posed with working class youth who play active roles in these movements being sidelined from the decision-making on the next phase of the struggle as a result of lack of grassroots democratic working class platforms that can serve as revolutionary government in process. Such a platform organized democratically from the grassroots to the national level will make use of the enormous political will, energy and wealth of experience of the working class, youth and the community people in alliance with the progressive middle class, students, youths and professional of the cities to build an alternative government that will threaten the rule of capital. These were the battle cry on the streets of these revolting societies as exemplified in various mass movements in Egypt and Tunisia calling for 'Second Revolution'.

On the contrary, it is the middle class youths, students and upper layers of the working class (professionals); and civil societies (NGOs) who have had access to platforms of actions (like the media), resources and decision making, which has impacted upon the character, direction and demands of the movement. This has given lifeline to capitalist voices and further blurring the movements. However, this is not to imply that the working class and downtrodden youths have not put in their feet in the movements but they are not in control. There are reports of debates on the streets of Tunisia and Egypt on the next line of action while workers are organizing mass actions in factories, workplaces, communities and sectors to demand for one improvement or the other. In fact, the central trade union, UGTT, despite its recent treacherous past, was central to the downfall of the Ennhada-led tripartite government through the mass movement that emerged after the murder of opposition lawmaker in August– even if this only meant transferring power from one set of capitalists to another under the nebulous tag of Government of National Salvation.

However inspiring these situations are, they fall short of revolutionary platform needed where decision making will come from the downtrodden from their living experiences in the struggle so far. With such democratic revolutionary platform, it will be possible to organize nationwide political and economic agenda that can place power with the working class. The current arrangement only allows the ruling and capitalist class from effacing the working class. The unions need to be transformed into struggle platforms with democratic structures from the grassroots and workplace playing central role in decision-making coupled with the adoption of socialist programmes. This is the only way of genuinely moving the struggles forward and achieving the ultimate aim of these revolutions.